The lack of synergy and collaboration among the federal, states and local governments has been disclosed as the cause of the abandonment of over 8,000 projects nationwide.
The abandoned projects will now need over N5 trillion for completion.
A former Director of the National Planning Commission, Nazifi Abdullahi Darma, made this disclosure on Monday.
Darma said over 8,000 water projects and dams executed by the Federal Government were unable to serve the local people due to difficulties in collaboration, adding: “If the state governments were involved, they will collaborate in ensuring that the water gets to the people.”
“Over 8,000 projects that would need over N5 trillion for completion have been abandoned by the Federal Government nationwide.”
Darma, who is now a lecturer of Economics at the University of Abuja, stated this on Monday while speaking at a workshop on entrepreneurship in tertiary education curriculum.
It was organised by the Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida University, Lapai in Minna.
Presenting a paper titled: “Linking university entrepreneurship education to local business environments in Nigeria: issues and challenges,” Darma lamented the lack of synergy and collaboration among the federal, states and local governments.
He said this has been the major hinderance to the completion of projects.
He said that a recent survey of teams from the National Planning Commission on some projects by the Federal Government showed that states and local governments were not aware that such projects existed in their domain.
He called on the Federal Government to come out with a national policy on innovation, adding that it should also set up a national implementation council on innovation development.
While advocating for special fund for the funding of innovative ideas, the university lecturer stressed the need to develop a curriculum that will promote specialisation based on entrepreneurial innovativeness.
The Vice Chancellor of IBBU, Prof. Ibrahim Kolo, insisted that the spirit of entrepreneurship must be inculcated in students towards making them self reliant after graduation.
Kolo said IBBU had established the Department of Entrepreneur Studies with the aim of producing graduates that will not be looking for white collar jobs but be employers of labour.
He urged the local communities around the university to take advantage of the opportunity offered the university to build up their entrepreneurial skills towards economic empowerment.